Sung by Roberto Mancusi with John Flinders (piano)
Genre: Vocal
Mood: Dramatic
Forces: Male voice, Piano
Length: 3 Minutes
Arab Love Song (2004) – setting of Francis Thompson for baritone and piano, 2½’.
Arab Love-Song
by Francis Thompson
The hunchèd camels of the night
Trouble the bright
And silver waters of the moon.
The Maiden of the Morn will soon
Through Heaven stray and sing,
Star gathering.
Now while the dark about our loves is strewn,
Light of my dark, blood of my heart, O come!
And night will catch her breath up, and be dumb.
Leave thy father, leave thy mother
and thy brother;
Leave the black tents of thy tribe apart!
Am I not thy father and thy brother,
And thy mother?
And thou - what needest with thy tribe's black tents
Who hast the red pavilion of my heart?
First performance:
Roberto Mancusi and John Flinders, St Martin in the Fields, London.